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LONDON—Efforts to end the international mission in Afghanistan, curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions and halt the bloody repression of Syria’s opposition will dominate talks opening Tuesday between U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Cameron is heading to the United States for a three-day visit focused on current and looming foreign policy challenges, seeking to sketch out in more detail the planned withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

The two leaders, who last held talks in person at the United Nations in September, are meeting ahead of a key NATO summit on the Afghan mission taking place in Chicago in May.

Their discussions follow the weekend killings

of 16 Afghan civilians, allegedly by a lone U.S. soldier, and the deaths of six British troops last week in a roadside bomb blast—the largest loss of life in a single incident for U.K. forces in Afghanistan since 2006.

“As recent days remind us, this remains a difficult mission. We honor the profound sacrifices of our forces and in their name we’ll carry on the mission,” Obama and Cameron wrote Tuesday in a joint op-ed piece published in the Washington Post.

They indicated their talks would likely focus on exactly when international forces plan to step back from a combat role amid public unease over the still rising death toll in the 11-year-long mission.

NATO’s plan “includes shifting to a support role in advance

of Afghans taking full responsibility for security in 2014,” the leaders wrote in their op-ed.

Last week’s fatalities took Britain’s death toll in Afghanistan since 2001 to 404. Cameron has previously announced that the U.K. will withdraw 500 troops by the end of 2012, reducing the size of the country’s contingent in Afghanistan to 9,000.

“It is worth remembering why we are in Afghanistan,” Cameron told reporters Monday. “We are there to train up the Afghan army and the police so

that country is able to look after its own security and make sure that country isn’t a haven for terrorists—without having foreign troops on its soil.”

Setting modest ambitions for the end of the mission, Cameron said Afghanistan must have “at least a chance of stability” by the time foreign forces withdraw.

Alongside formal discussions, Obama plans to take Cameron to an NCAA Tournament college basketball game in Ohio on Tuesday and will offer the British leader a glitzy White House dinner on Wednesday.

The lavish welcome is in part to offer thanks for the pomp and pageantry during Obama’s visit to Britain last May, when the U.S. president was warmly greeted by Queen Elizabeth II and bonded with Cameron over burgers

as the two leaders hosted a barbecue for troops.

It also underscores the strength of ties between Washington and London at a time when some British legislators fear the U.S. is preparing to shift its focus to the Asia-Pacific region.

Parliament’s Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, which includes two former Foreign Secretaries and an ex-spy chief, last week urged Cameron to “reflect deeply on the long term implications” of the U.S. turning its attention away from Europe.

“If the U.S. is moving its focus eastwards, there is the possibility it will become involved in conflicts in which the U.K. has little direct interest,” the report said. “Conversely, the U.S. may be less interested in situations involving U.K.

interests.”

Obama and Cameron said they plan to discuss how to handle the resumption of negotiations with Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Britain and the U.S. are among the six world powers involved in diplomacy with Tehran.

Both leaders are also seeking to dissuade Israel from launching any pre-emptive strike against Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. “We believe that there is time and space to pursue a diplomatic solution,” they wrote.

Last week, Cameron’s Cabinet was briefed by the head of Britain’s MI6 overseas spy agency, John Sawers, on the latest intelligence assessments on Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

While Cameron warned last week that “military action against

Iran by Israel would not be the right approach,” he acknowledged all options remain possible to handle the issue—including the use of force.

“It is difficult to say that, because no one wants to see conflict in any way, but it is very important that the world sends a message to Iran that a nuclear-armed future is not something that we want to see,” he said.

Cameron and Obama also will consider how to increase pressure on President Bashar Assad, amid the yearlong uprising in Syria during which the U.N. estimates his regime has killed over 7,500 people.

So far, the British leader has ruled out any U.K. military intervention or providing weapons to the country’s opposition.

Cameron has called on nations opposed to Assad to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions and to attempt to document the killings to assist any future prosecutions.

“With our international partners, we’ll continue to tighten the noose around Assad and his cohorts, and we’ll work with the opposition and U.N.-Arab League Envoy Kofi Annan to plan for the transition that will follow Assad’s departure from power,” he and Obama wrote in their joint article.

In Washington, British Ambassador Peter Westmacott told reporters that Obama and Cameron had a strong shared conclusion that military action is not the way to solve either crisis in Iran or Syria.

On the possibility of a unilateral Israeli strike on Iran, Westmacott said, “Both of our governments have made plain that we do not think that would be helpful.”

Westmacott said there is joint planning to respond to “various scenarios” if Israel does carry out a strike, but he would not give details. Iran would probably retaliate, and there could be many unpredictable consequences for nations such as the U.S. and Britain that might be seen as supporting Israel.

“People are looking at all the options,” he said.

Westmacott said the new negotiations with Iran were welcome, “but we have no illusions. We’ve been here before.”

“If this time they’re serious, we’ll be the first to cheer,” he added.

Cameron is being joined during the U.S. visit by Foreign Secretary William Hague and Treasury chief George Osborne. During his visit, Cameron also is expected to meet with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newark Mayor Cory Booker—but won’t hold talks with any of the Republican presidential candidates.

————

AP National Security Writer Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

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By Matthew Robinson

NEW YORK |
Mon Mar 12, 2012 6:01pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Barack Obama faces a vexing decision this spring that is forcing him to weigh the pain of high gasoline prices for swing voters in Pennsylvania against the loyalty of his union base: whether to allow foreign oil tankers to carry fuel between U.S. ports.

By granting waivers to the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 — which requires all vessels carrying products or people between U.S. ports to fly under the U.S. flag, be built in the United States and crewed mostly by U.S. citizens — Obama might head off a spike in Northeast fuel prices this summer.

Temporary exceptions to the so-called Jones Act are among a host of measures the White House is considering in order to temper the rally in gasoline prices to their highest since last May, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Speculation about waivers is already building in the industry. Ship owners are receiving inquiries from potential customers about the potential to hire the 56 ocean going U.S. .-flagged Jones Act tankers. Many of these ships are already chartered on other routes and the Jones Act fleet accounts for only 1 percent of the world’s tanker capacity.

Waivers would dramatically increase the number of tankers that could ship surplus fuel from the Gulf Coast to the eastern seaboard, lowering transport costs and creating incentives to build up gasoline stocks ahead of the summer driving season and keep prices in check.

But what seems a relatively modest political win requires fraught political calculations: waivers would anger Obama’s staunch Democrat union base and incite attacks over U.S. jobs from his Republican opponents, while likely doing very little to quickly bring down the cost of gasoline and diesel fuels.

Without the waivers, however, the U.S. Northeast — another plank of support for Obama that includes coveted swing state Pennsylvania — may face an unprecedented shortage of gasoline due to the closure of half of regional refineries by mid-year.

“Clearly there is a concern with taking an action that goes against deeply felt views of a well-established union which has been trying to protect jobs in the shipbuilding industry,” said Ed Morse, global head of commodities research at Citigroup.

“The way to avoid a price spike is to build storage, and the Jones Act waiver is a mechanism for encouraging a storage build.”

HAUNTED DECISION

Large scale waivers of the Jones Act are not unprecedented. President George W. Bush waived domestic shipping requirements briefly after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. Last summer, Obama granted 52 waivers for 44 crude shipments to facilitate the release of strategic oil reserves to compensate for the loss Libyan supplies during the civil war.

Last year’s decision may come back to haunt him. The Jones Act has proved remarkably resilient and unions have proven vocal and influential in keeping it in place.

“Whenever someone takes on the Jones Act it is usually to their peril,” said Charles Ebinger, director of the Energy Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution.

But without doing something to unclog bottlenecks in the U.S. oil system, the growing gap between East Coast gasoline prices and those in the Midwest could become a game-changer in the November presidential election — especially if Sunoco shuts down the region’s biggest refinery this summer.

Retail prices in on East Coast averaged $3.77 a gallon in the week to March 5, according to government data, 17 cents over prices in the Gulf Coast and well over 7 cent premium Northeast customers have faced on average for the past five years.

“The need to get more gasoline into that market and through New Jersey and into New York state is pretty profound,” said Ebinger.

Asked about possible Jones Act waivers, a White House spokesman said on Monday: “As we have said before, we are not going to speculate on potential actions that may or may not be considered in the future.”

Representatives of unions were unequivocal in their resistance.

“Waiving the Jones Act doesn’t make sense due to the impact on jobs,” said Dan Duncan, executive secretary treasurer of the A.F.L-C.I.O Maritime Trades Department, which represents 5 million mariners, shipbuilders, longshoreman and suppliers in the United States and Canada.

“We need to keep a strong American fleet for national security implications.”

WE CAN HANDLE IT

The Jones Act was originally conceived as a way to help protect and support domestic shipbuilders, an industry that has since all but vanished. But the Maritime Administration can grant waivers, usually on a case by case basis, “to help ensure continued economic progress and stability.”

Of the 56 Jones Act tankers with a capacity of more than 10,000 deadweight tons, about 35 are generally engaged in trade in U.S. waters, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Ship owners, wary of the impact of waivers on their business, insist the industry has enough Jones Act-approved tankers to handle a change in trade flows to move product from the giant U.S. Gulf Coast refining hub — which currently is exporting record volumes of fuel to Latin America — to the East Coast, which last year imported roughly a fifth of its gasoline from Europe.

“It would take some shuffling around but I think there is some tonnage that could meet that demand,” said Michael Roberts, senior vice president at Crowley Maritime Corporation.

Florida-based Crowley owns 17 U.S.-flagged articulated barges, some of which can carry nearly as much oil as the handymax tankers in the U.S. fleet and can also be used for intercoastal trips. The country’s 44 barges are not included in the EIA tanker numbers.

“If they waive the Jones Act to move product from the Gulf to the East Coast that would really knock the stuffing out of the confidence to invest in American vessels,” said Roberts.

The cost of chartering a U.S.-flagged tanker to take a 38,000-tonne cargo of gasoline from Houston to New York Harbor would be roughly $4 per barrel; the theoretical cost of a foreign-flagged tanker to make the same journey would be about $2 per barrel, according to shipbrokers.

The difference in the rates would only shave a handful of pennies off the price of gasoline for consumers. But if waivers were granted soon, the higher availability of cheaper shipping could encourage stock building to pad the East Coast supply.

EAST COAST BLUES

While the East Coast has been dependent on imported fuel for years, the region is more vulnerable than ever before.

Benchmark Brent crude oil prices, the main component in determining the price of gasoline, have surged 18 percent to their highest since 2008 this year as tensions between the West and Tehran and a range of tough new sanctions aimed at curbing the OPEC nation’s nuclear program stoked fears of a disruption.

U.S. pump prices, now $3.76 a gallon, could climb to near $5 during the summer, analysts say.

The East Coast has traditionally been supplied through the local refineries, imports, as well as shipments from the Gulf Coast through the Colonial Pipeline, the only major line that pumps fuel from the Gulf to the Eastern seaboard.

Within months, Sunoco’s 335,000 barrel per day (bpd) Philadelphia plant could also be closed, which represents 24 percent of the region’s refining capacity and supplies about a tenth of the roughly 1.5 million bpd of gasoline consumed in the Northeast. The deadline for Sunoco to sell the plant is July.

In addition, refinery shutdowns that have hit Europe and the Caribbean have also limited the Atlantic Basin fuel supply. While Europe can still make up for some needs, the Northeast would still likely have to pull from refiners in distant India with spare product, which might not arrive in time to prevent price surges.

Stocks in the Northeast are currently at 61.5 million barrels, nearly 3.8 million barrels over the 5-year average for early March, EIA data showed.

“You can only move so much through the Colonial Pipeline,” said Jan Stuart, oil analyst at Credit Suisse. “If you get a Jones Act waiver, you can get that product into the Harbor.”

A major new 125,000 barrel per day (bpd) expansion of the line between Greensboro, North Carolina, and Linden, New Jersey announced on Monday will eventually help improve supply, but the first phase won’t be ready until mid-2013.

HARD TO DIVERT

At the moment, none of the Jones Act fleet are plying the Gulf-Atlantic route, shippers say. Most currently sail from the Gulf Coast to the Southeast to deliver refined products, with a smaller number working the West Coast market. These ships could have to be redeployed to make the route, Roberts said.

But the EIA noted in a recent report that Jones Act ships are often chartered months in advance, leaving only a handful available on a short-term basis should a shortage arise.

“Oil companies have domestic tonnage on longer-term time charter contracts, while the more traditional trading companies rely on the volatility of the market and the availability of spot domestic tonnage,” said Morten Arntzen, CEO of Overseas Shipholding Group, the largest owner of Jones Act vessels.

All of OSG’s 12 tankers are currently under long-term charter, although they also own 10 articulated barges which are available on a spot basis.

Analysts said that while unions could in the end back off over temporary waivers, there are no easy options for Obama to control prices quickly.

“I don’t know that the union would make that big a fight because they wouldn’t want to antagonize other democratic constituencies that would favor lower prices but I don’t think it is going to lower prices very much,” said Ebinger.

“The president is really tied on what options he has.”

(Reporting by Matthew Robinson; additional reporting by Janet McGurty, Bruce Nichols, Jeff Mason in Washington and Jonathan Saul in London; Editing by Alden Bentley)

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WASHINGTON — Against the backdrop of gasoline prices rising at the pump in an election year, a new Obama administration report cites “significant progress” in reducing foreign oil imports and increasing domestic oil and gas production.

The report by six federal agencies was released early Monday on the first anniversary of a speech by President Barack Obama in which he pledged to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil imports by one-third in about a decade.

According to the study, the United States reduced net imports of crude oil last year by 10 percent, or 1 million barrels a day. The United States now imports 45 percent of its petroleum, down from 57 percent in 2008, and is on track to meet Mr. Obama’s long-term goal, the administration maintains.

Imports have fallen, in part, because the United States has increased domestic oil and gas production in recent years.

U.S. crude oil production increased by an estimated 120,000 barrels a day last year over 2010, the report says. Current production, about 5.6 million barrels a day, is the highest since 2003. The United States has been the world’s largest producer of natural gas since 2009.

Use of renewable sources of energy, such as wind and solar, is still relatively small, but has doubled since 2008.

The report credits administration policies for the improvements. It cites initiatives such as higher passenger-car fuel efficiency, a renewable-energy output jump and improved weatherization of 1 million homes.

But independent analysts attribute much of the fall in oil imports to slack U.S. demand in a still-anemic economy. And to a certain degree, the boost in domestic oil and gas production is the result of decisions that energy companies made during the George W. Bush administration to develop key reservoirs.

The report, titled “The Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future,” appears aimed, at least in part, at tamping down political fire from Mr. Obama’s Republican rivals and other critics, who say his administration has not done enough to fight higher gasoline prices.

“We’re experiencing yet another painful reminder of why developing new American energy is so critical to our future,” the report states. “We know that there are no quick fixes to this challenge.”

Domestic gasoline prices rise and fall with global crude oil prices, which have been driven up by the gradual economic recovery and by market jitters over mounting tensions with Iran, one of the world’s largest oil producers. The closing of several U.S. refineries also has pushed gas prices higher.

The average price for a gallon of gasoline rose a nickel over the weekend, and is now $3.80 per gallon. That more than wiped out the penny decline seen last Tuesday through Thursday.

That’s the highest ever for this time of year. The average pump price has risen 52 cents this year, as refineries and wholesalers pass along the higher cost of crude oil. Oil is up about 8 percent since Jan. 1.

Experts say the nationwide average could rise as high as $4.25 by late April.

Supplies of gas tend to fall in April, as refineries sell off their existing gasoline to make room for a different blend required in summer to meet clean air laws. That shortage, plus the higher price for the summer gas, typically boosts the nationwide average. And demand rises as the weather gets warmer.

Prices tend to peak in late April or early May. The nationwide average hit a high in 2011 of $3.9845 on May 5.

Already drivers in several states are paying prices around the $4 mark. Hawaii’s drivers are paying the most, at $4.44 per gallon. By contrast, those in Wyoming are paying the least, at $3.30 per gallon. Prices vary throughout the nation due to differing state taxes, transportation costs and other regional expenses.

GOP candidates on the campaign trail and some oil industry leaders have charged that Mr. Obama’s energy policies stifle domestic production, and have urged the administration to open as much public land and offshore areas as possible to drilling.

But more domestic drilling will not end the need for imports. The United States holds only 2 percent of the planet’s proven oil reserves, but Americans consume 25 percent of the world’s daily output of crude oil.

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WASHINGTON —
President Barack Obama is hitting back at Republican criticism of his energy policies and his role in controlling gasoline prices.

Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to underscore his administration’s work to develop alternative energy sources and increase fuel efficiency.

“I’m going to keep doing everything I can to help you save money on gas, both right now and in the future,” Obama said. “I hope politicians from both sides of the aisle join me.”

He accused Republicans of a “bumper sticker” approach to solving the nation’s energy problems.

It’s a familiar theme Obama stuck many of the same chords during two out-of-town trips this week and during a White House news conference on Wednesday.

“We can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices not when we consume 20 percent of the world’s oil,” Obama said in the address, recorded during a visit Friday to a Virginia jet engine component plant.

In the Republican weekly address, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple accused the Obama administration of blocking projects and technology that would allow greater energy production. He singled out the Keystone XL pipeline project, which Obama deferred.

“We cannot effectively market our crude oil domestically without a large north-south pipeline,” Dalrymple said. “North Dakota oil producers were scheduled to feed the Keystone pipeline with 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day.”

Obama said there wasn’t enough time to properly study the project ahead of the deadline forced upon him by Republican congressional lawmakers. On Thursday, the Democratic-controlled Senate blocked another Republican bid to speed approval of the pipeline, which would stretch from Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Also Thursday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Obama is partly to blame for higher prices at the pump.

Gasoline prices paused this week in their march toward $4 per gallon.

After 39 straight days of increases, prices fell nearly a penny from Tuesday to Thursday and held steady on Friday at $3.758 per gallon for the national average. The lull won’t last long, and gas is still nearly 50 cents higher than it was at the beginning of the year.

Despite Romney’s assertions, economists say there’s not much a president of either party could do about gasoline prices. The current increases at the pump have been driven by fears of a war with oil-rich Iran and by higher demand in the U.S. as well as in China, India and other growing nations.

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When British Prime Minister David Cameron visits President Barack Obama this week, one detail may
stay bottled up: the labels on the wines the White House pours
at the state dinner tomorrow night.

For Obama’s first three state dinners, honoring the leaders
of India, Mexico and China, the White House released the name,
year and appellation of wines — all-American — paired with
each course.

Part of a tradition observed by previous presidents,
including George W. Bush, that disclosure stopped after Obama’s
dinner last year for Chinese President Hu Jintao. One of the
wines served on Jan. 19, 2011, was a top-rated 2005 Cabernet
Sauvignon from Washington state that originally sold for $115 a
bottle and went for as much as $399 by the time of the dinner.
The price the White House paid per bottle was not made public.

At the next state dinner, on June 7, 2011, for German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, the menu made public by the White
House didn’t include details on the wines.

“An American wine will be paired with each course,”
stated a note at the bottom of the menu released by the White
House. So went as well the menu released for the Korean State
Dinner honoring President Lee Myung-Bak on Oct. 13, 2011.

Tyler Colman, who writes the Dr. Vino wine blog and teaches
at New York University, said in an interview that the shift in
menu protocol may reflect political considerations given the
sluggish U.S. economy.

“They’re probably sensitive to displays of wealth at a
time when the economy is not firing on all cylinders,” said
Colman, whose blog had noted the absence of wines on the German
state dinner menu the White House released.

No ‘Picnic’

Still, keeping the wine list under wraps undercuts
promotion of U.S. winemakers at a time when markets in
developing nations such as China have potential to be “really
hot” for U.S. labels because of the rising middle- and upper-
income classes, he said.

A state dinner “isn’t a picnic or casual get-together,”
and it’s justifiable from diplomatic and trade standpoints for
the White House to spend money to showcase fine American wines,
Colman said.

Dorothy Gaiter, wine and food editor for the quarterly
France Magazine and a former wine columnist for the Wall Street
Journal, said Obama was private about his wine preferences
before his election.

‘Good for America’

If the Obama White House has decided to stop publicizing
which American wines are served at official events, she said,
“I don’t understand this. It’s good for America.”

Rick Small is co-owner of the Woodward Canyon winery in
Lowden, Washington, whose 2009 Chardonnay was among the wines
poured for the German dinner.

He and his wife noticed the shift because they had gotten
billing on the menu when their wine was served at a Clinton
administration dinner. He said he didn’t know why the practice
was changed and that it probably does help the industry overall
to have U.S. wines publicized by name.

At the same time, Small said, it’s an honor to be chosen at
all. “You’re not going to get pushy about it since they picked
your wine,” he said.

The White House declined to comment for this article or to
make available Daniel Shanks, the usher who has managed wine
selection since the Clinton administration, or social secretary
Jeremy Bernard. First Lady Michelle Obama’s office referred
questions to the White House press office.

No Disclosure

White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest declined to
disclose which wines were served at the German or Korean state
dinners, identify wines from non-state dinners, make menus of
past meals available for inspection or answer questions about
the shift in practice.

Earnest also declined to say whether the White House would
release the names of wines at the Cameron dinner.

The White House has promoted its release of other documents
and data. On March 8, it announced a website, www.ethics.gov, to
expand access to government databases tracking White House
visitor records, lobbying disclosures and Federal Election
Commission reports.

“From the day he took office, the president committed his
administration to work towards unprecedented openness in
government,” said the official statement announcing the site.

At the state dinner for Hu, the 2005 Quilceda Creek
Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley from Washington state, one of
the wines poured that night, was $115 a bottle at release, the
winery’s general manager, John Ware said in an interview.

Turning Point

The wine earned a rare 100-point rating from wine critic
Robert Parker. By the time of the White House dinner, Ware said,
it sold for $300-$350. It was listed for as much as $399 per
bottle, according to wine websites.

Ware said the winery was approached by the White House and
asked to choose which of its wines to serve. The price the
winery charged the White House was “closer to the $115” than
to $399, Ware said, while declining to name the price.

Afterward, he said, the winery’s profile in Asia got a
“pretty significant” boost.

The White House selection drew derision.

The day after the Hu dinner, the anti-Obama website Gateway
Pundit carried a posting entitled, “Sacrifice Is For the Little
People… Obama White House Serves $399 Bottles of Wine at State
Dinner.”

Comedian Stephen Colbert said that, given the U.S. debt
held by China, the Hu dinner “should have been a sweatpants-
potluck with box wine and a sleeve of Oreos.”

Social Secretaries

Other changes were taking place at the White House at the
time. Between the Chinese and German state dinners, the White
House changed social secretaries, hiring Bernard that February.

Since the start of his presidency, aides also have avoided
endorsing specific brands such as which golf clubs Obama favors.

Not all wines served by the administration are shielded. At
Vice President Joe Biden’s dinner last month for Chinese Vice
President Xi Jinping, the list included a 2010 Sauvignon Blanc
and 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Hall winery in California’s
Napa Valley. The wines sell for $22.99 and $48.99 per bottle,
respectively, on the wine.com website. Vintner Kathryn Hall was
U.S. ambassador to Austria during the Clinton administration.
She didn’t return calls for comment.

Wine has been regularly served at the Executive Residence
since 1800, except from 1877-1881 under President Rutherford B.
Hayes, Shanks wrote in 2007 for an article for the Journal of
the White House Historical Association.

Kennedy and Nixon

In the 20th century, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon were
known for their familiarity with French wine. The policy of
serving American wine took hold in Lyndon Johnson’s
administration, according to an article in last month’s Wine
Spectator. Ronald Reagan, a former actor and California
governor, raised the profile of his home state’s wines.

Ulises Valdez, 42, of the Valdez Family Winery and Tasting
Room in Cloverdale, California, said he is “still celebrating”
having his 2008 Silver Eagle Vineyard Chardonnay served at the
White House for the Mexico state dinner on May 19, 2010.

Valdez snuck into the U.S., from Mexico, as a teenager and
found work picking grapes. He got amnesty during the Reagan
administration. Today he owns a vineyard management company and
the winery. “This is the beauty of the U.S. –if you’re a hard
worker and good and honest you can do it,” he said.

White House menus can be a point of pride and business
builder for individual vintners whose wines are chosen.

China Sales ‘Quadrupled’

Kerry Murphy, proprietor of DuMOL Wines in Orinda,
California, whose wines have been served at the White House
since 2002, said he’s become a collector. “God knows how many
menus I have — I love ’em,” he said.

“I’ve been blessed by the association,” Murphy said. “It
sets the wine to high standards,” he said, because the White
House “can buy whatever they want.”

His Chardonnays sell for $50-$60 per bottle.

After his 2008 Russian River Chardonnay was served at the
Hu dinner, he said, “our sales in China quadrupled.”

“I think that has a lot to do just with exposure from that
one dinner,” he said. ’’It makes me feel good because we’ve got
some dollars coming back’’ to the U.S. from China. “That’s a
patriotic thing in itself.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
Margaret Talev in Washington at
mtalev@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Steven Komarow at
skomarow1@bloomberg.net

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WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama will Tuesday announce a new trade suit against China prompted by Beijing’s restrictions on the export of rare earth materials used in manufacturing high-tech products.

A senior White House official said on condition of anonymity that the United States would bring the case at the World Trade Organization with the European Union and Japan, in a new sign of election-year trade tensions with Beijing.

China is the world’s largest producer of rare earths — 17 elements critical to manufacturing a range of high-tech products from iPods to missiles — and its moves to dictate production and exports have raised a global outcry.

Critics say Beijing’s strategy is aimed at driving up global prices of the metals and forcing foreign firms to relocate to the vast emerging nation to access them.

But Beijing says the restrictions are necessary to conserve the highly sought natural resource, limit harm to the environment from excessive mining and meet domestic demand.

The Chinese government has set its 2012 export quota for rare earths at around 30,000 tonnes, the same level as 2011. Yet exporters only filled roughly half the quota last year.

State media have already reported that China was bracing for renewed calls to ease its rare earths controls after the WTO ruled that limits on such key raw materials broke trade rules.

China has also called for greater use of rare earths for its own domestic manufacturing, a move which also raised concerns in the West.

Rare earth goods have a wide range of applications in the military and technology sectors of the economy in particular.

They are used in products including computers, MP3 players, disc drives, missiles and flat screen televisions and cellphones.

Obama, facing fierce election-year pressure on China from Republican opponents, has repeatedly called on Beijing play by the “rules of the road” as it rises to become one of the dominant players in the global economy.

The US president has already launched a new enforcement center to more aggressively challenge “unfair” trade violations, including by China.

In other disputes, Washington has accused China of artificially undervaluing its yuan currency in order to boost its own exports, hurting US manufacturers and hobbling the economic recovery.

But China defends its exchange rate regime, saying it is moving gradually to make the yuan more flexible.

During a visit earlier this year to Washington by China’s presumed next ruler, Vice President Xi Jinping, Obama spelled out expectations of China on trade.

“We want to work with China to make sure that everybody is working by the same rules of the road when it comes to the world economic system,” Obama said, as Xi sat by his side ahead of their Oval Office talks.

“That includes insuring that there is a balanced trading flow not only between the United States and China but around the world.”

Xi used the visit to express hopes that US election-year politics would not have a “regrettable impact” on ties between the world’s two largest economies.

The United States has also accused China of subsidizing its auto parts sector and of not doing enough to crack down on US-developed and produced computer software.

Early in the Obama administration in 2009, Washington also slapped harsh tariffs on Chinese tires, even as the White House sought to establish a cooperative relationship with Beijing on geopolitical issues.

AFP journalists cover wars, conflicts, politics, science, health, the environment, technology, fashion, entertainment, the offbeat, sports and a whole lot more in text, photographs, video, graphics and online.

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President Barack Obama’s energy plan involves radically increasing gas prices to the European rate of about $10 a gallon. And he’s well on his way, as gas prices have more than doubled since he took office in January 2009, when gasoline was only $1.79 per gallon. And he’s scheming to double prices again in his second term, with you footing the bill.

It’s no secret that we’re being gouged at the pumps. The reason for soaring gas prices? According to Obama, it’s not because of anything he has done — not his devaluing the dollar via his disastrous economic decisions, his closing federal lands for oil production opened by his predecessor, his passing cap-and-trade legislation in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression or his refusing to stand strong against the regime in Iran, which controls 20 percent of the world’s oil supply via the Strait of Hormuz.

President Obama would do well to take his own advice; in regard to the possibility of $3-a-gallon gas in 2006, the then senator said, “The time for excuses is over.”

To add insult to injury, Obama has appointed some petroleum-pillaging politicians, such as Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who, according to The Wall Street Journal, said in 2008 that in order to wean Americans off gasoline, the administration should make them punitively pay at the pump: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

And just two weeks ago, as reported by Politico, Chu told Congress that Obama’s Department of Energy “isn’t working to lower gasoline prices directly” but “is working to promote alternatives such as biofuels and electric vehicles.”

When Rep. Alan Nunnelee, R-Miss., specifically asked Chu whether the Obama administration’s goal is to lower gas prices, he emphatically replied, “No.” (Out of the horse’s mouth!)

But I suppose the views of Obama-appointed officials such as Chu don’t have any bearing on soaring gas prices, right?

Chu again embraced the strategy to raise gas prices in order to increase green alternatives to Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday,” in February 2011, when he said: “The price of gasoline over the long haul should be expected to go up just because of supply and demand issues. And so we see this in the buying habits of Americans as they make choices for the next car they buy.”

Increasing gas prices in order to wean us off gasoline and onto biofuel alternatives is a ruse — a deceptive strategy laid on the backs of American citizens.

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama launched the most comprehensive defense to date of his energy policies on Monday, pushing back against election-year attacks from Republicans who say they are to blame for high gas prices that are eroding his popularity with voters.

Heralding a report on energy security showing a big drop in U.S. oil imports, Obama acknowledged pain at the pump that analysts fear could lift gasoline to $5 a gallon in some parts of the country and pose a threat his November 6 bid for re-election.

“Today’s high gas prices are a painful reminder that there’s much more work to do to free ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil and take control of our energy future,” Obama said in a statement on the energy report. “We have made progress.”

The 20-page study, which highlighted rising domestic oil and gas production and Obama’s steps to lift fuel efficiency, showed U.S. oil imports declined to 8.4 million barrels a day by the end of 2011, versus 11 million barrels a day in January 2009.

The White House said his policies were tackling a troubling topic for many Americans. This was underlined by a new Washington Post-ABC poll, which showed disapproval of Obama’s handling of the economy increased to 59 percent, from 53 percent when the survey was taken last month.

Nearly two-thirds of those polled said they did not approve of his handling of the situation with gas prices.

Republicans complain that Obama has hobbled the energy industry with red tape and point to the administration’s block on TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL oil pipeline project to support their contention that he is hostage to environmentalists in his political base.

“With this report, the president is celebrating his recipe for four or five dollar gas. Poll after poll shows Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of the president’s work on gas prices,” said Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress.

The price of gasoline at the pump has risen more than 12 cents to a national average of $3.81 a gallon in the past two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey released on Sunday. The highest price, of $4.35 per gallon, was recorded in Los Angeles.

Analysts see no quick fixes to the challenge in the time remaining until the November election.

“There’s nothing the president can do that’s going to alleviate the gasoline price rise or reduce oil imports by another one million bpd,” said Charles Ebinger, director of the energy security initiative at The Brookings Institution.

1. A new GOP foreign policy tone: pessimism
  
  Newt Gingrich’s new pessimism about the U.S.’s ability to salvage Afghanistan have put him at odds with the interventionist-minded wing of the GOP.
2. Southern discomfort
3. Why the polls might be wrong about Romney
4. Updated 3 minutes ago
  
  3/13/2012 5:02:12 AM +00:00
  
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5. Territories, Wyo., give Romney majority of delegates for Saturday

ELECTION HEADWIND

Rising gas prices could sap consumer spending and undermine economic confidence, which has been lifted by recent encouraging data that was capped on Friday by a better-than-expected February jobs report.

The economy, which is slowly recovering from a savage recession in 2008-2009 but is still hampered by an unemployment rate of 8.3 percent, is expected to be a decisive factor in whether Obama can manage to hold on to the White House for a second term.

Obama visited election battleground states North Carolina and Virginia last week to promote his message. He will speak at the White House on Monday with local television stations serving swing states, including Colorado, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Oil prices have been buoyed by improving confidence in the outlook for the U.S. and world economy, as well as heightened concern of fresh military conflict in the Middle East amid warnings from Israel over Iran’s nuclear program.

Eager to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, the White House report noted that net oil imports as a share of total U.S. consumption declined from 57 percent in 2008 to 45 percent in 2011, “the lowest level in 16 years.”

Obama also has told his administration to look into possible manipulation in the oil market as well as evidence of price gouging at the pump, and has not ruled out tapping the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ease supply pressures.

“All options are at the table, because the president obviously feels the pain that the American people are facing with respect to gas prices,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar told reporters during a White House briefing.

However, even a substantial release from reserves might not bring down pump prices.

“In the next six months, even drawing down the SPR as fast as possible, which I wouldn’t advocate, is not going to see much impact,” said Brookings’ Ebinger.

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WASHINGTON/KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — President Barack Obama said on Monday the massacre of 16 villagers by a U.S. soldier increases his determination to get American troops out of Afghanistan, while a U.S. official said the accused staff sergeant previously had suffered traumatic brain injury.

Sunday’s shootings triggered angry calls from Afghans for an immediate American exit. Obama said there should not be a “rush to the exits” for U.S. forces who have been fighting in Afghanistan since 2001 and that the drawdown must be carried out in a responsible way.

The accused U.S. Army staff sergeant walked off his base in the southern province of Kandahar in the middle of night and gunned down at least 16 villagers, mostly women and children.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the death penalty could be sought in the U.S. military justice system against the soldier, whose name has not been publicly disclosed.

Referring to Sunday’s massacre, Obama said in an interview with KDKA, a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh: “It makes me more determined to make sure we’re getting our troops home.”

“It’s time. It’s been a decade, and, frankly, now that we’ve gotten (Osama) bin Laden, now that we’ve weakened al Qaeda, we’re in a stronger position to transition than we would have been two or three years ago,” Obama added, referring to the al Qaeda leader killed by U.S. forces last year in Pakistan.

The Army staff sergeant accused in the incident was treated for traumatic brain injury suffered in a vehicle rollover in 2010 during a previous deployment in Iraq, a U.S. official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was premature to state whether there was any link between the brain injury and Sunday’s shootings.

Panetta portrayed the shooting as an isolated event that would not alter plans for a gradual, orderly withdrawal of American combat forces by the end of 2014.

“War is hell. These kinds of events and incidents are going to take place, they’ve taken place in any war. They’re terrible events. And this is not the first of those events, and it probably won’t be the last,” the U.S. defense secretary told reporters on a flight to Kyrgyzstan.

“But we cannot allow these events to undermine our strategy or the mission that we’re involved in.”

MY LAI COMPARISONS

Obama was pressed in another separate interview with WFTV, an ABC affiliate in Orlando, on whether there were parallels between the killing of 16 Afghan villagers and the notorious 1968 My Lai massacre of the Vietnam War.

“It’s not comparable,” Obama said.

“It appeared you had a lone gunman who acted on his own,” he said of the Afghanistan incident. “In no way is this representative of the enormous sacrifices that our men and women have made in Afghanistan.”

Panetta said the goal was to try the case within the U.S. military justice system. Asked whether the death penalty could be considered, Panetta replied: “My understanding is that in these instances that could be a consideration.”

Obama and America’s NATO partners intend to pull most of their troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, leaving an inexperienced local army in charge. Officials in Washington denied that the killings might alter that schedule.

“I do not believe this incident will change the timetable of a strategy that was designed and is being implemented in a way to allow for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, to allow for their transfer of lead security authority over to the Afghans,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

Just days before Sunday’s attack, Kabul and Washington had made significant progress in negotiations on a strategic partnership agreement that would allow American advisers and special forces to stay in Afghanistan after most foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014.

But securing a full deal may be far more difficult now. “This could delay the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement,” an Afghan government official told Reuters.

The attack was the latest incident to ignite Afghan anger at the United States, coming on the heels of U.S. soldiers’ burning of copies of the Koran on a NATO base last month, and other incidents that have intensified America’s perception problem in Afghanistan.

Panetta, answering questions for the first time about the shooting rampage, said U.S. officials were still uncertain about the motives behind it.

The accused soldier was part of the 2-3 Infantry, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, from the Lewis-McChord base in Washington state. After serving three tours in Iraq, he arrived in Afghanistan in December and has been at the Belambai base since February 1.

Based on preliminary findings of a U.S. investigation into the incident, Panetta gave this account of the soldier’s actions: “He went out in the early morning and went to these homes and fired on these families. And then at some point after that, came back to the forward operating base and basically turned himself in, told individuals what had happened.”

U.S. officials, who have rushed to distance the shootings from the efforts of the 90,000-strong U.S. force that over the past year has beaten the Taliban back from much of southern Afghanistan, say an investigation was under way but did not know when it would conclude.

Afghanistan’s parliament condemned the killings, saying Afghans had run out of patience with the actions of foreign forces and the lack of oversight. Civilian deaths have long been one of the main sources of tension between Kabul and Washington.

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